We just released a whitepaper around servicing offline VMs using SCVMM and SCCM. Download details are here: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c5abb19e-15b1-4692-b465-393584c592a0&displaylang=en Direct Download file from here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/1/0/d10ecad6...

I am pleased to announce that we have just published a whitepaper that provides guidance for customers transitioning from SMS 2003 Patch Management to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Software Updates Management. You can download the paper from here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/8...

In SCCM 2007, we added a neat feature similar to one provided by Automatic Updates that gives managed clients the ability to install updates prior to deadline.  End users can configure this by clicking the "Schedule Installation" as shown below or by going to directly to the Configuration...

This is a very fundamental question for Admins trying to raise the level of software update compliance at their company. Traditionally using SMS 2003, the normal practice was to look at a sample of client logs and use that as a basis for guessing what the top problems were for non-compliance. In SCCM...

It's been a while since I added a post.  Let's start up again with a quick one. I was recently asked when do SCCM clients download updates and when would they show the notification balloon in the system tray - here is the answer: 1.  SCCM clients download updates according to a deployment-specific...

Let's talk about maintenance windows in SCCM, a new feature for software distribution and software updates. Maintenance windows usually make sense in a server-based scenario where servers have defined service windows where they can be taken down for changes, including software updates. You can define...

One of the most useful new objects in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is the Update List. An update list is, well, a list of software updates - that is, it is a fixed list of updates that can be created through a wizard (which also allows downloading of updates). Security rights can be assigned...

I thought I could put some thoughts down about the Software Update Point (SUP), which is a new site role within SCCM 2007. The job of the SUP is provide software update metadata to clients that are using the Windows Update Agent (WUA) to scan for missing updates. The underlying component of the SUP is...

This being the first post on my new blog, I would like to start out by stating some goals: 1. Discuss some of the interesting or practical things about the Software Update Management (SUM) feature within the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 product (SCCM), which my team is helping to produce...